During the tech run through for the CUCDW Dance Show, Beauty, one of the pieces had no dancers present, so the choreographers took to the stage while their music played.
CUCDW Dance Show – Beauty
For about the 5th year now, I took photos of the Cambridge University Contemporary Dance Workshop’s annual dance show at the ADC theatre. However, this year, for the first time, I was also performing in the show, with the Cambridge University Acrobatic Rock’n’Roll team.
Here are some backstage photos; I’ll write a separate post for each dance piece.
New Works by Cambridge Contemporary Dance
The Cambridge Contemporary Dance company put on their first full evening performance over two nights at the Mumford Theatre.
More photos of the performance can be viewed at CantabPhotos.com
Publicity for ADC Dance Show, "Beauty"
Having photographed the last few years’ CUCDW dance shows in Cambridge, I was asked again this year to create the publicity for the forthcoming show. The show’s producer, herself a dancer, had ideas for the dance imagery to be used in the poster. We worked together to get enough photos of herself in a graceful poise, as well as photos of a flowing scarf, which together would be combined in the final poster.
The poster/flyer design turned out to be one of the most intricate that I’ve ever done, with fine details in the main title typography, smoke effects, floral flourishes, and background textures.
Two of the source photos which would be combined in Photoshop
The final poster design
The back of the flyer
Dirty Dancing
On a trip to the Norfolk Coast with the Cambridge University Rock’n’Roll Team, a couple showed off one of the more popular acrobatic moves, Dirty Dancing; however, the appearance of the wave wasn’t quite expected.
Acro Photoshoot
After some stunning acro rock’n’roll photos at sunset of Barny & Jenny, we decided to take a few more photos on the St. John’s Backs.
Impressions – Contemporary Dance Show
The May Week Dance show, by Cambridge Contemporary Dance, performed under the Wren Library in Trinity College.
This show took place towards the end of May Week, and I was pretty tired from lots of all-nighters. Unusually for me, I turned up to the performance a few minutes before it started and just took photos on auto-pilot; so I was very pleasant surprised to see how well they came out. Again, LightRoom really helped turn good photos into great photos.
More photos from the Impressions Dance Show on CantabPhotos.com
Rock'n'Roll – Sunset Silhouettes
A few hours after the orchard photoshoot with Sarah, and after a Rock’n’Roll practice, I invited a couple from the team back to mine for dinner. As we were walking up Castle Hill, I realised that the sun was about to set, we were right next to Castle Mound, and the couple were capable of doing some great acro. About a year ago, I started planning a set of photos of Cambridge Rock’n’Rollers striking acro poses in various parts of Cambridge, and one of the ideas was to get acro silhouettes on Castle Mound, especially a move called “Dirty Dancing”. The photos came out even better than I had envisaged last year, so now more team members are keen for their own photoshoots ;)
If you’d like to learn how to do some of these moves, come along to some of the excellent Rock’n’Roll classes – check out the team website:
www.CambridgeRockandRoll.co.uk
Dirty Dancing
Double Straddle
Straddle
Swan
Hip Flick
Shoulder Sit
Rock'n'Roll Photoshoot
Again, this isn’t one of my photos, but I’m in it, hitting a pose from the Acrobatic Rock’n’Roll routine that I dance with my partner, Emily. The Cambridge Dancers’ Club booked a photoshoot with Andrew Carruth of Ely Photo Factory, and some ballroom, dancesport, salsa and Rock’n’Roll couples dressed up and danced (or posed) for the camera. This is one of my favourite photos of Emily and I from the shoot, Emily getting into the splits as I do a straddle jump behind her. Along with many other people, I wasn’t sure that the photo hadn’t been photoshopped when the photographer gave us the CD, but thankfully one of the other RnR dancers at the shoot assured us that it is indeed genuine :)
More photos from the shoot are on the Cambridge Dancers’ Club website
Canvas Print – CUTAZZ Lyrical Dance
After the CUTAZZ Dance Show, I was approached by the boyfriend of the dance teacher / lead performer (Natalie Demain), to make a canvas print of one of her dances that I’d photographed, as a birthday present. I put together a few drafts of different artistic styles for the print, and a week later, the canvas was delivered in time for her birthday, and I think looks rather great.
The final canvas print, after some artistic editing
The original photograph